Funny Face

Funny Face

Splashes of vivid color light the way through Stanley Donen's very modern musical. 'Think pink!' commands Miss Prescott (Kay Thompson), head of Quality Woman fashion magazine, and American women obey--all except Jo (Audrey Hepburn), an intellectual young woman who tries to prevent Miss Prescott from staging a photo shoot in her bookshop. Photographer Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) sees something interesting in Jo's "funny face," and soon he's lured her to Paris to model during the day and discuss philosophy in smoky cafes at night. Modeling Givenchy clothes, Hepburn steals the color in every scene, and her funny face enchants all, including Dick and, unexpectedly, the dark and handsome philosophy master whose theories Jo adores.
The musical numbers are primarily duets--Jo and Dick glide together in each other's arms, Jo and Miss Prescott find unexpected solidarity in womanhood, and Dick and Miss Prescott cavort in the philosopher's salon--but the most engaging scene is when the three come to Paris, plead exhaustion to one another, then secretly race around the city, singing and dancing and reveling in being tourists.